Cabinet approves implementation of Rs 11040 crore NMEO-OP for self-sufficiency in edible oils

The Union Cabinet has given its approval to launch a new mission on oil palm to be known as the National Mission on Edible Oils — Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a special focus on the Northeast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

India is heavily dependent on imports in the case of edible oils. It is, therefore, important to make efforts to increase the domestic production of edible oils in which increasing the area and productivity of oil palm plays an important part.

A financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore has been made for the scheme, out of which Rs 8,844 crore is the Government of India share and Rs 2,196 crore is State share and this includes the viability gap funding also.

Under this scheme, it is proposed to cover an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare (ha) for oil palm till the year 2025-26 and thereby reach the target of 10 lakh ha ultimately.  The production of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is expected to go up to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and up to 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30.

The scheme will immensely benefit the oil palm farmers, increase capital investment, create employment generation, shall reduce the import dependence and also increase the income of the farmers.

The proposed scheme will subsume the current National Food Security Mission-Oil Palm programme.

There are two major focus areas of the scheme. The oil palm farmers produce Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFBs) from which oil is extracted by the industry. Presently the prices of these FFBs are linked to the international CPO price fluctuations.  For the first time, the Government of India will give a price assurance to the oil palm farmers for the FFBs. This will be known as the Viability Price (VP).   A Formula Price (FP) will also be fixed which will be 14.3% of CPO and will be fixed on a monthly basis. The viability gap funding will be the VP – FP and if the need arises, it would be paid directly to the farmers’ accounts in the form of DBT.

The second major focus of the scheme is to substantially increase the assistance of inputs/interventions. A substantial increase has been made for planting material for oil palm and this has increased from Rs 12,000 per ha to Rs 29,000 per ha.

Revival of NERAMAC

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a package of Rs 77.45 crore (Rs 17 crore towards fund-based support and Rs 60.45 crore towards non-fund-based support) for the revival of the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC), a central Public Sector Enterprises under the administrative control of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER).

With the implementation of the revival package, farmers of NER will be ensured of remunerative prices for their products. The package will help NERAMAC implement various innovative plans, namely providing better farming facilities, training to farmers in clusters, organic seeds and fertilizers, post-harvesting facilities in order to promote the products of NE farmers in the world market through participation in events, registration of GI products etc.